Google Raises Privacy Concerns in Europe

In the four years that Google has operated offices in Europe (major offices in Dublin, Zurich and London, with smaller centers in Denmark, Russia and Poland, among other countries) it has found itself increasingly at odds with the privacy laws of our European brethren.

For instance, in Switzerland, where Google has 450 employees working in a seven-story converted brewery, data protection officials have requested that Google do away with a plan to introduce Street View’s 360-degree, ground-level photographic images. The reason being that Swiss privacy laws forbid the unauthorized use of personal images or property. To give you another example, in Germany if Street View even wanted to take a photograph for the service it would be violating existing privacy laws. So far, Street View extends only to major cities in France, Spain and Italy.

But Europe is upset with the Big G for more than a few purloined private moments via camera. The European Commission in Brussels is questioning how long user logs are retained, and a EU regulatory panel wants Google, along with other search engines, to eradicate their logs after six months. Google has responded that it needs data for the better part of year in order to accurately contextualize news and other popular events for the best search results. The 9-month stance (does that mean Google gives birth to a little data baby?) is a step down from the previous 18-month position they had held.

Still, Google has a way to go before winning over the Continentals. Kiel, a city located on the German Baltic Sea coast, has advised the search engine that its Street View cameras are not welcome, and the company will be assessed fines if it attempts to take pictures there. The city of over 200,000 residents has even gone so far as to distribute stickers for homeowners to place in their windows that warn Google against taking a photograph of their property.

“What Google is doing with Street View violates German law,” said Marit Hansen, deputy director of the Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz in Schleswig-Holstein, the state in which Kiel is located. “It’s not enough that Google’s Street View is not yet available in Germany. The simple photographing is in itself a violation.”